PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Steelers, stretched thin by injuries and their own mistakes, repeatedly kept the New York Giants out of their end zone. A game the Steelers were controlling turned dramatically when they couldn’t stay out of that end zone themselves.

Eli Manning threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Boss with 3:11 remaining for the Giants’ only touchdown after they tied it several minutes before on a bizarre safety.

Emergency snapper James Harrison snapped the ball out of the end zone to give New York the pivotal two points, and the Giants rallied to beat Pittsburgh 21-14 Sunday in a matchup of division leaders.

The resilient Steelers (5-2), playing with backups all over the field, tried to make up for Ben Roethlisberger’s four interceptions and five sacks by turning two big-play scores into a 14-12 lead they preserved with a goal-line stand midway through the fourth quarter.

“Nobody has two long snappers on their team; what you have are emergency snappers,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “James Harrison is regarded as the lead candidate. We got some snaps on the sideline and we felt comfortable. We just weren’t able to get it done.”

Giants coach Tom Coughlin knew Pittsburgh was without a snapper, saying, “That’s why we brought the pressure. I don’t know if it disturbed them, but the snap was high.”

The snapping predicament came shortly after the Steelers, already playing without injured left tackle Marvel Smith, left guard Kendall Simmons, running back Willie Parker and cornerback Bryant McFadden and suspended wide receiver Santonio Holmes, lost safety Ryan Clark (dislocated right shoulder) during the physical game.

“I was nervous about snapping for the first time in a game,” Harrison said. “But my feeling was that even if I shot it over his head, we still had a chance to stop them.”

John Carney kicked four field goals for New York, hitting from 26, 35, 25 and 24 yards – an indication of how many times the Giants threatened but couldn’t get into the end zone against the NFL’s top-ranked defense until Boss scored.

Manning, held in check most of the game while going 19-of-32 for 199 yards, finally took advantage of the tiring and depleted Steelers defense by finding Steve Smith for 25 yards to the 25 on the decisive drive.

Brandon Jacobs followed with an 8-yard run, and Manning hit Plaxico Burress for 8 yards ahead of Derrick Ward’s 7-yard run. The TD pass to Boss came on a second-and-2 play.

“Things weren’t going well at times and it’s easy to get frustrated, but we didn’t,” Manning said. “We hung in there tough and found a way to win. Getting frustrated is not going to fix anything. Sometimes you’ve got to take the field goals and hope that the defense will keep playing tough.”